Judge rules RIAA cant have unlimited access to users PC
Posted on 21/03/06 16:58 by Quakester2000                             
Judge rules RIAA cant have unlimited access to users PC

DamnedIfIknow used our news submit to tell us that the RIAA has suffered a blow at the hands of the legal system. The RIAA wanted to be able to have unlimited access to a hard drive of an Oregon mother it's suing in a p2p file sharing suit. The women in question Tanya Anderson lives alone with her 9 year old daughter, who live on social security disability benefits. Tanya was accused of downloading music and the RIAA wanted a settlement to get them off her back.

Anderson has denied ever downloading music or distributing since the suit was filed last February. She was so desperate to get the RIAA of her back she even offered the RIAA to forensically examine the computer for evidence of music. The RIAA always said no this demand but recently has changed its tune by asking for a court order for unlimited access to her computer. Anderson and her lawyers refused to give unlimited access and the judge agreed, he told Anderson to employ her own forensic expert and bill the RIAA for the costs of the examination.

Legal The Big Four Organized Music record label cartel"s RIAA is licking its wounds after losing a bid for unfettered access to the hard drive of an Oregon mother it"s victimizing in a p2p file sharing case.The woman, Tanya Andersen, lives alone with her nine-year-old daughter, Kylee, surviving on Social Security disability payments.On behalf of the Big Four"s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) RIAA, "settlement" worker Mark Eilers accused her of "illegally" downloading music files, demanding an extortion payment to get the labels off her back.

But Andersen, 43, says she"s has never downloaded or distributed music in her life and since February last year, when the labels" civil copyright infringement lawsuit was filed, has been trying to end her nightmare by having the RIAA examine her computer so they could see for themselves.The RIAA had always ignored her but then, out of the blue, suddenly wanted a court order to allow it to ferret freely through her hard drive.Andersen and her lawyers, Lybeck Murphy from Mercer Island, Washington, refused to give carte blanche access, and judge Donald Ashmanskas has told Andersen to go ahead and hire her own independent private forensic expert to look for specific files, also ordering the RIAA to foot the bill for the examination.

 

Source: P2PNET

Reactions
Discuss this article with your fellow community members! We appreciate your valuable input, but please keep the reaction policy in mind and make sure your reaction is constructive.
By Hypnosis4U2NV, Tuesday 21 March 2006 18:46
Hypnosis4U2NVFunny how she offered her computer to be examined at first and now they changed their minds.. RIAA should have taken her up the first time around..
By GezusK, Tuesday 21 March 2006 19:57
GezusKPerhaps they wised up and realized that the RIAA is so desperate that they would have planted evidence on the system. Better to have a 3rd party look into it.
By themushroom, Tuesday 21 March 2006 21:46
Tanya suddenly remembered those bathtub photos of Kylee?
By stevehyper12nitro, Wednesday 22 March 2006 05:19
If they were to inspect their hard drive, one drive examinist wouldnt be sufficient, you would need multiple people to verify the contents without any RIAA bribes included to them. Then if they find any music they will have to compare the filename to the file name that was downloaded then the byte size of the file to make sure it wasnt planted there and most of all the time stamp on the deleted file.
By stevehyper12nitro, Wednesday 22 March 2006 05:22
because the RIAA are so slow at this i would have bought a new hard disk by now installed a legit copy of windows and physically destroy and bury the original, then they can search all the want on the new disk devil
By Saruman, Wednesday 22 March 2006 13:23
Yeah, but this ruling only affects this one case. For everyone else, the RIAA will have unlimited access to their drives because future music releases will have a "phone home" feature. devil
By Hypnosis4U2NV, Wednesday 22 March 2006 15:07
Hypnosis4U2NVI agree, I would have installed a new drive and a new copy of Windows.. I actually have a spare 40 gig drive lying around, I would have popped that in there.. My only concern is that they would know when the Windows operating system was installed, so you would need to have a backup drive and an old backup image of a fresh Windows install.. Or install Windows now and pop the drive in later..
By kain, Wednesday 22 March 2006 15:39
All she would have to do is either a) keep her files in an encrypted partition or b) remove the files and use a utility to remove the entries out of the file system table as well as another utility to do a 3-pass wipe of the data sectors. There are no forensics capable of recovering files from areas that have been wiped (that's why the DoD uses the 3-pass wipe system internally). Without the smoking gun, the RIAA doesn't have a case. They are relying on extortion or the hopes of winning a case on circumstantial evidence (like IP logs which I can tell you are not 100% accurate and cannot be assumed as "clean" and untampered with). Same goes with the HD...a 3rd party must analyze the HD at the residents home, otherwise the RIAA could have planted the evidence.
By Roj, Wednesday 22 March 2006 20:28
Um, that ruling wouldn't even be necessary in Canada. Privacy Act.
Name: Email:


Your comment:

Receive notification on new comments?
Top news
A nice article over at Fudzilla. Sony is still losing money on the Playstation 3, but less now than when it first...
Written by DukeNukem
Losing a high-def war means you end up with a lot of stock that needs to be sold. A few bought the Xbox 360 HD DVD...
Written by Tim Stork
According to a news story published at DigiTimes, Asus could suspend the production of optical disc drives (ODD)...
Written by geno 888
Travellers who have entered the US may already know what it is like to have their luggage...
Written by Seán Byrne
RSS

Our Community messages

Happy Birthday to you mjb30
Zod thank you for your reaction in the news section.
Bob just logged in, Good to see you back!